


Heart-less

by Ariss_Tenoh



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-26
Updated: 2014-08-26
Packaged: 2018-02-14 21:59:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2204556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ariss_Tenoh/pseuds/Ariss_Tenoh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Leon discovers that his past is not yet dead and that sometimes second chances are given.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Jan 5th 2005.

The rain fell in an incessant shower around him. The grey clouds made the night darker and the sudden flashes of lightning and roar of thunder suited his mood. It was so quiet in this town, this world in-between worlds. He would find him here, he was sure of it. The faint tug in his chest, where his heart used to be, throbbed painfully.

 

A fierce smile twisted his features into an animalistic visage.

 

He caught the whisper of a movement to his left. He stopped, one hand already on the hilt of his sword inside his black trench-coat.

 

The shadows surrounding him shifted and grew horns.

 

Ah, the Heartless. It seemed they existed even in this supposedly safe haven for travellers. They crawled in a macabre semblance of walking and shuffled around him, the way an animal would when it meets a stranger in its territory.

 

He allowed them to _sniff_ all they liked. He knew he was of no interest to them.

 

Not prey, he could almost hear that thought spread silently between them.

 

The Heartless were disgusting. Half corporeal bodies, yellow pits for eyes, and twisted horns atop their heads. _Unnatural_ was the word many people used to describe them. Not a clean soothing darkness that was the other face of light, but a perverted simulacrum which devoured souls.

 

Wryly, he wondered what that made him. He strode across the town square. Little puddles forming and disappearing with each step he took.

 

From underneath the town's brick roads, between its dark alleys, and from the unlit windows of its buildings, the Heartless stared at the newcomer. Their collective mind, feeble as it was, wondered what this creature sought.

 

This creature who felt like them, yet was not.

 

~ To Be Continued ~


	2. Chapter 2

"Have you heard? There was an attack on a bar last night. A lot of people lost their hearts." Yuffie somehow managed to bounce up and down while standing still in Cid's shop.

 

Leon leaned against the opposite wall. He wished she'd just say it; they were **dead**. When the Heartless took a person's heart, soul, essence, whatever one called it, there was nothing of that person left. It was doubtful that even banishing the Heartless forever would return those people to their original state.

 

It was a terrifying way to die, Leon thought. To have your very being ripped out, leaving only your body. A empty shell of flesh.

 

He'd never looked at sea shells the same way afterward.

 

The door chimed again and Leon lifted his eyes to see a man wrapped in a red cloak silently enter the shop. Cloud looked straight at him and said, "There was another attack in the west square."

 

Yuffie gaped. "But it's broad daylight! How can a Heartless be walking around at noon?"

 

Cid cursed and chewed madly on his toothpick from behind the counter.

 

"You're assuming it's a Heartless. Not every evil has to be a shadow." Cloud's face was expressionless but everyone knew he meant himself.

 

"Maybe it's a new breed of 'em. Damn and the kid's just bounced to another world too," Cid grumbled in his usual gruff manner.

 

No, Sora wasn't here but that didn't mean they couldn't deal with this new menace. Leon pushed himself off the wall and walked to the door, ignoring the rest of the discussion.

 

"Hey, where're you going?" Yuffie almost shouted in his ear as he passed her by.

 

"I'm going to see what this is about." He opened the door and walked out.

 

He was surprised to see Cloud following him. The man was a loner and preferred the company of his self and his massive sword. Leon turned and glanced at him.

 

Cloud noticed even that infinitesimal movement. "I'd like to come with you. There was something strange about the attacks."

 

Leon frowned. "Strange?"

 

"There were scorch marks in every location, like someone cast a very strong fire spell," Cloud said. Voice dispassionate and low.

 

"Scorch marks? That doesn't sound like the work of a Heartless." Leon picked up his pace and Cloud walked beside him, if a little to Leon's right.

 

Leon hoped they'd find this new monster soon. The sun was setting in an hour.

 

~ To Be Continued ~


	3. Chapter 3

Black gloves touched the scorch marks on the wall. The inside of the tavern looked like a tornado had hit it, but a tornado made of fire not wind. Tables, chairs, bottles, everything was broken and littered across the wooden floor. It looked like their new Heartless was either extremely pissed off by something or just liked mass destruction in general, in addition to killing people that is. The weird thing was that the survivors of the attack said _he_ wasn't a Heartless, but a man in a hood and a long black coat. Yet, the Heartless trailed after him and attacked those he didn't kill.

 

Leon cursed silently. It looked like Cloud was right. Whoever or whatever this thing was, it wasn't simply out for souls. The only person whom Leon knew could walk around unharmed by Heartless was Cloud and the bargain Cloud had struck to achieve it wasn't an appealing one. If another person had struck the same deal with Hades, they'd have to be pretty desperate.

 

Desperate people were dangerous. Particularly the kind who associated with the God of The Underworld.

 

"Leon," Cloud's called. He stood behind the bar's wooden counter.

 

He walked over to Cloud and looked at where the man was pointing.

 

"Do you see? These marks were made by a sword." Cloud's human hand moved over the slash-like mark that ran diagonally down a wall.

 

Blue-grey eyes looked up and down the wall. They widened in shock.

 

A swirl of red fabric and Cloud was standing beside him. "Leon?" His tone betraying his concern.

 

Leon took a deep breath. "Look at the marks, look how they form a symbol."

 

Cloud's eyes narrowed and he stared at the wall and the slash marks. Together, all the marks formed a crude symbol.

 

"It's a.. cross?"

 

"Yeah, a cross." Leon swallowed. He brushed back his hair with one hand, trying to contain his anxiety.

 

"Why would you..?"

 

Leon sensed the man was trying not to say something sentimental. He pivoted on one foot and walked out of the deserted tavern. Hyne, but it'd been years since he'd seen that symbol. Happier years. He gazed at the sky. Night had just fallen and a small silver crescent rose to grace the cloudy sky. He heard footsteps nearing him.

 

"There was someone I knew who had a cross as their symbol." Leon didn't look at Cloud as he said it.

 

"Someone special?" Cloud's voice was a mere whisper. It was a difficult subject for them both.

 

"Yes," Leon said simply. "But that person's dead."

 

Cloud stepped around to look him in the eye. "You think these attacks are directed at you?"

 

No, the thought hadn't occurred to him yet.. but Cloud was right. Someone knew his past and was using it against him or at least to goad him.

 

"When I find out who it is, I'm going to kill him," Leon vowed, relishing the hot anger that flowed through his veins. It had been a long time since he'd felt anything.

 

"That's good to hear... _Squall_." The words came from the shadows, heavy with contempt.

 

Leon whirled around, drawing his gunblade. Startled to hear a name only a handful of people knew and no one used, and that voice!

 

The figure stepped out of the shadows.

 

From the corner of his eye, Leon could see Cloud unwrapping his broadsword.

 

A cold wind blew. The white gauze drifted from Cloud's sword and swept along the ground towards the figure in the black coat.

 

Thunder rumbled far above.

 

It's going to rain, a part of Leon's mind told him.

 

A black gloved hand rose and pushed back an equally black hood.

 

Yellow eyes shone in that too familiar face.

 

"Hello, Squall."

 

~ To Be Continued ~


	4. Chapter 4

Yellow eyes shone in that too familiar face.

 

"Hello, Squall."

 

Leon was speechless. He felt unbearably light as if he wasn't standing on solid ground. He couldn't be seeing this, his eyes had to be wrong. Saw the gunblade, its blade so dark it was almost black, and couldn't move when it came near his throat.

 

A loud clash of steel and Cloud's broadsword met the gunblade before it reached Leon.

 

He stood there, watching Cloud exchange blows and parries with the man in black.

 

_He has a name..._ The cold analytical part of Leon's mind prodded.

 

Cloud rolled to one side on the ground, evading a fire spell whose flames were black and melted the stone slabs that paved the street. The figure stood a distance away, disregarding Cloud as a threat and turned instead to Leon.

 

"So you've found another playmate, Squall? I'm hurt. I really am. I thought we meant more to each other than that."

 

The sheer frivolity of those words snapped Leon out of his reverie. He raised his eyes, stormy with cold anger, and stared at the man.

 

"You're not him. Whatever you are, you are NOT him." Betrayal, anger, and loathing dripped from Leon's statement.

 

One raised eyebrow. "So sure of that are you?"

 

"He's dead. I watched him die." Leon's grip tightened on the hilt of his sword.

 

The sky started to rain. Cloud stood against a wall, a dark red shadow. He was aware this wasn't his fight, but he'd keep an eye on its proceedings.

 

"What if he found a way to make it out of his world? Like you did." The man's tone was gentle, inviting confidences.

 

Leon raised his gunblade and moved into a fighting stance. "I won't allow you to mock his memory."

 

The man sighed. "I forgot you've always had a problem with hope." A smirk, its familiarity turned Leon's stomach into knots. "But then we've always fucked better than we talked."

 

A blink of an eye and Leon barely had time to meet the sword thrust. They danced around each other, exchanging blows. Swords glinted, sparks shot when metal grinded against metal, and the dull ring of swords echoed around the walls of the surrounding buildings.

 

_I'd forgotten... how good he is._ Came the unwilling thought.

 

Thunder threatened to crack the sky into pieces.

 

Leon's foot slipped and he slid to the ground, the stone paving it made slick by rain. His arm shook with the sword that locked into his, Leon winced. He had never been able to handle a gunblade with one hand, unlike the other man, and now his right wrist throbbed in protest.

 

"Hmm... this is familiar isn't it?" Yellow eyes with darker irises stared at him. The swords intersected and locked the two men in a strange embrace.

 

Blue-grey eyes gazed at the scar which ran diagonally across the man's face, so like Leon's own. He swept one leg and it caught the man across his chest and Leon darted out of reach.

 

Black flames erupted around Leon. He crouched and slammed his hand into the ground, a wall of ice sprung up glittering in cold blue tones as the fire met its match and died out.

 

He stood and shifted his grip on his gunblade. The pain in his wrist warned him that he couldn't keep it up for long, not with the inhuman strength his opponent possessed. Leon had never been able to beat Cloud in a duel and while Cloud was some strange hybrid of human and Heartless, he also didn't have the added strength of a personal grudge.

 

"Yeah. You still cheat."

 

The rain had flattened the man's blond hair and it reminded Leon of another man. A man who looked soft and warm coming out of a shower with a towel ruffling his hair. Leon's gut turned into ice remembering it.

 

"So you admit it's me."

 

"I'm admitting nothing," Leon practically snarled. He didn't see Cloud's eyes widen from where he stood at this atypical display of emotion.

 

The man sighed. His wet black coat only made him look more like a shadowy Heartless. "I guess we'll just have to do it the hard way." With one step, the black gunblade was in Leon's face. Leon blocked it, but another sweep of the black sword and strands of his brown hair separated from his head.

 

"Your hair's longer. I like it." The offhand comment didn't stop the flurry of blows. Leon found himself on the defensive and being pushed back. He was going to meet a wall or the ground soon if he didn't counter.

 

A flash of lightning hit a nearby lamppost, the glass shattered into pieces. Its light blinded Leon and he felt a sharp pain along his left side. He looked down, a line of blood was blooming from his white shirt. His inattention made it easy for the other to grab his right wrist, Leon cried out, and another hand landed on his shoulder and used the weight of his own body to swing him into the ground.

 

Leon's head connected solidly with the stony ground. He lay dazed, blinking the whiteness out of his vision.

 

The man crouched over him. His arms and legs effectively pinning Leon in his place.

 

"Say my name, Squall."

 

Leon's eyes tried to focus, his mouth was fine though. "Go to hell."

 

A shrill, haunted laugh. "I did. And I came back."

 

Those yellow eyes loomed yet closer. "Say my name," he demanded.

 

Leon glared.

 

The yellow eyes narrowed. Leon's wrist was deftly broken.

 

Leon's body jerked, trapped and impotent.

 

"Say..My..Name."

 

"You're not _him_. You're just a Heartless wearing his face." The words squeezed past gritted teeth.

 

The rain kept falling. Leon tried to push away the memory of another rainy night from his mind, but he could no more do that than push the man off him.

 

"There is something I want to know." The expression on the man's face became solemn. "If I'm really a Heartless, where did my heart go?"

 

And he leaned down... and kissed Leon.

 

Leon felt his heart pound, his blood roar in his ears. He wasn't sure from pleasure or shock. The man's lips felt cold, but so good. Leon had missed this, the simple connection made by a kiss. No one had kissed him in years.

 

A black gloved hand rested right in the middle of Leon's chest, soft white light glowed underneath the spread fingers. The man's warm breath tickled Leon's ear as he whispered, "It's been here all along."

 

"Seifer?" Squall was horrified to hear his voice breaking under the stress of his emotions.

 

_Seifer_ smiled. The rain plastered his blond hair and gave him a drowned puppy look. The innocence of the image was marred by his eyes, yellow with darker amber irises. Not their usual sea-green colour. Some things had changed.

 

"Yeah, Squall. It's me."

 

Cloud watched the man he'd known as 'Leon' hesitantly raise his arms and embrace the man now identified as Seifer. Leon held him tight and buried his face in Seifer's neck. Cloud saw Seifer murmur something in Leon's ear, should he call him Squall now he wondered?, and he too hugged Leon back.

 

He pushed himself from the wall and walked away. Before entering a side alley that would get him to his place, Cloud cast a last look at the two men. They were still sitting on the stone pavement wrapped around one another. A picture of reunited lovers. Cloud's face lit with a rare smile. Maybe sometimes.. just sometimes.. the princess got her shining white knight back. Not, of course, that he would ever be mentioning that in Leon's presence.

 

The rain seemed like it would continue till morning. He raised his face and it's heavy drops washed his face.

 

Cloud disappeared into the shadows, finding comfort in the knowledge that some stories have a happy ending.

 

~ End ~


End file.
